My challenge for 2015: try something new every day for a whole year.

Day 37 – teaching my baby how to be a baby

After a year of not going to pregnancy yoga or concerts for unborn babies, of denying F. the opportunity of having baby massages or learning baby sign language (yes, that’s a thing!), I finally gave in and decided to take him to a baby class.

I picked Pekip as some mums had told me how much they’d enjoyed it. It’s a concept that originated in Prague and focuses on the interaction between parents and their babies whilst playing. What’s special about it is that the kids are naked. F. absolutely loves being naked as he can move more freely and discover such exciting things as his feet. So I picked Pekip from the wide range of baby classes, expecting a pretty easy-going atmosphere of babies crawling around and parents meeting each other.

Hmmm, not quite. I guess I should have read a bit more about it in advance. It started by us all dancing in a circle (babies in our arms), followed by a song which greets every child and parent by name. Not my cup of tea, but the babies were squeaking with enjoyment, so fair enough. After that, however, we spent an hour and a half with such educationally valuable things as the teacher doing a show of soap bubbles for the babies and frantically shoving toys in the hands of kids who were actually happy playing with something else.

The good thing is that it’s an opportunity to talk to mums and dads whose kids are exactly the same age – it’s always a relief to hear that other little ones do the exact same silly things as our little monster. I also think that F. really loved being naked for such a long time. But do children at a few months old really need to be supported in learning to crawl and play? Call me naive, but I personally believe they’ll manage with just their parents’ love and without a paedagogical concept.